SILICON VALLEY — Anthropic, the developer of the Claude artificial intelligence model, is set to pay more than 10% on subordinated debt. With funding growing harder to secure amid concerns over AI companies' profitability and debt loads, Anthropic has offered investors interest well above typical market yields.
Anthropic offered a 10% yield on subordinated bonds to Blackstone, the world's largest private equity manager, to raise money for purchases of Google's tensor processing units, the Financial Times reported on the 18th. TPUs are AI inference chips Google developed in-house for its data centers.
Broadcom said in April that it had signed a contract to supply Anthropic with several gigawatts of TPUs starting in 2027. Anthropic is raising $60 billion (80 trillion won) to cover lease payments for about 1.5 gigawatts of TPUs. The $60 billion is split between $42 billion in senior bonds guaranteed by Broadcom and $18 billion in subordinated bonds that rank lower in repayment priority.
Blackstone is recruiting investors for half of the subordinated bonds. Blackstone was offered a total return from Anthropic that includes a 10% coupon plus other fees, sources told the FT. Borrowers with comparable credit quality typically pay about 7% in public bond markets, according to the ICE BofA BB U.S. High Yield Index. Because Anthropic's credit rating could rise to investment grade after it goes public, sharply lowering its borrowing costs, Blackstone is emphasizing to investors that the deal is a rare chance to lock in high returns.
The double-digit yield is a striking concession, given that Anthropic issued about $4.4 billion of bonds at 8.5% four months ago in a similar deal known as Project Big Sky. The FT said the rising borrowing costs show that investors financing AI infrastructure buildouts are demanding a higher risk premium, and that technology companies face the need to raise enormous sums in a short period and are paying high interest rates to attract major investors.
